How to prevent turkey poults from "Starving out"?

jmartin0411

In the Brooder
May 13, 2016
34
9
26
I have two new poults. They are getting heat, plenty of cuddles, fresh water, fresh bedding, and have grower pelleted feed with a vitamin supplement sitting. in. their. faces. But they have barely eaten since I brought them home two days ago? Any advice on getting them to eat? I'm loathe to put a chick or two in with them because I lost my first poults after putting them in with chicks. Any advice?? I'm going to contact the breeder tomorrow to see if they know of anything, the poults have all done well at their place, where they are kept with quail. That's a thought too, I might get them some quail for company?
 
Ok I would try to go and put some shiny things in there food and water like different colored marbles when they peck at them they will, soon learn how to eat. For the first two weeks after hatch with mine I had to force feed and drink all three of them and I had to pretty much hold the one upright for about a week because he wouldn't stand or walk. But he finally figured out how to walk and stand by himself. Hope something works out for them.
 
I have two new poults. They are getting heat, plenty of cuddles, fresh water, fresh bedding, and have grower pelleted feed with a vitamin supplement sitting. in. their. faces. But they have barely eaten since I brought them home two days ago? Any advice on getting them to eat? I'm loathe to put a chick or two in with them because I lost my first poults after putting them in with chicks. Any advice?? I'm going to contact the breeder tomorrow to see if they know of anything, the poults have all done well at their place, where they are kept with quail. That's a thought too, I might get them some quail for company?

You don't say how old the poults are. Really young poults should not be fed a pelleted feed. If you are feeding them a different type of feed than than what their previous owners were feeding them, that may also be part of the problem.
 
Sorry I did not mean pellets. They are on crumbles. My brain was not fully awake last night. I checked with the breeders and they fed them the same feed. They are around 2 weeks old. I'm gathering from reading that as a rule they are dense little birds. One tends to walk half crouched down. I'll try the marble trick and their breeder said they use dark greens to get their attention in the feed too, so I am going to try a mixture of both in a lower down feeder. I did scramble them a very small egg last night and found it mostly eaten this morning. I dipped their beaks in the water to be safe, and one took a little drink of it.
 
Sorry I did not mean pellets. They are on crumbles. My brain was not fully awake last night. I checked with the breeders and they fed them the same feed. They are around 2 weeks old. I'm gathering from reading that as a rule they are dense little birds. One tends to walk half crouched down. I'll try the marble trick and their breeder said they use dark greens to get their attention in the feed too, so I am going to try a mixture of both in a lower down feeder. I did scramble them a very small egg last night and found it mostly eaten this morning. I dipped their beaks in the water to be safe, and one took a little drink of it.

I don't find poults to be dumb and haven't had any problem getting them to eat and drink in large groups. There can be problems getting them started when there are only a few of them.

I use sand for bedding (eliminates any problems with eating wood chips, etc. and provides a very fine grit). When I put poults in an empty brooder I sprinkle feed on the sand. They will find the food sprinkled on the sand long before they learn to eat out of the feeder.

Your hunched over poult may be an indication of a vitamin deficiency. You may want to add a vitamin supplement to their water.

Good luck.
 
Thank you for the added information! Maybe we will switch them to a sand based bottom vs. shavings. Do you have any problems with the sand getting hotter than shavings would? I have a vitamin supplement in their feed mixed in, which is all I could find locally vs. something I'd add to water. I'm adding electrolytes to the water.
 
Thank you for the added information! Maybe we will switch them to a sand based bottom vs. shavings. Do you have any problems with the sand getting hotter than shavings would? I have a vitamin supplement in their feed mixed in, which is all I could find locally vs. something I'd add to water. I'm adding electrolytes to the water.

I have a large brooder with a temperature controlled heater for a small section and heat bulbs on a pulley system to make it easy to adjust the height while I also have temperature probe monitoring the bedding temperature all of the time. I have never used shavings so cannot compare sand temperature vs shavings temperature. I also never have any of the associated problems that can come from poults or keets eating the bedding.

Of course I live on a sand dune so the sand bedding is simply a matter of digging some up.

Good luck.
 
I came home to two perky poults who had eaten all their scrambled egg and some of their feed w/ vitamins. Fresh water with electrolytes moved in. Tomorrow is pen cleaning so I think I'll put sand in vs. shavings and see how we do with that. The one seems to have wet and somewhat frothy poo, but could be from the eggs? Otherwise they are bright eyed, and actually acted inquisitive with me when held. Vast improvement. It could be that they are recovering from moving shock still too.
 
Those all sound like good suggestions. I'm new to turkey poults, but just got a couple Bourbon Reds about a month old. The previous owner was having trouble with them eating crumbles, so she wet it. I'm finding they will absolutely not eat it dry. I dampen it, too. Then they're all good with it. Spoiled birds.... Oh, and they love shredded (like tiny grated) zucchini!
 

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